Hot Chocolate
by Ramona Bandicoot
Summary: Nothing makes the cold of a winter holiday melt away faster than a cup of hot chocolate. -oneshot-


**Disclaimer:** I don't own any Sly Cooper characters; they belong to Sucker Punch Productions/Sony/Sanzaru Games/etc.

**Claimer:** I own all of my original characters.

_Just a quick Christmas oneshot. Anyway, let me know what you think and Merry Christmas!_

Hot Chocolate

Fresh snow fell lightly from the sky, covering my fur in a thin layer of icy precipitation. I tapped softly on the glass in front of me, waiting for the inhabitant of the apartment to open the door. I wrapped my coat around me, trying to cut down the wind chill, and shivered as I waited outside in the dark skies of Paris. The sky itself might have been dark, but the city itself was full of holiday spirits as the buildings were decorated in multicolored lights and brightly lit signs of Santa Claus. I glanced down to the normally busy streets, but only saw a few people scurry down the frozen sidewalks. Most people were at home with their families, considering it was Christmas Eve, opening presents and tucking small children into bed in anticipation of the arrival of Santa Claus. I knocked on the glass again, wishing the door would go ahead an open. It might have been Christmas Eve, but surely Ramona had to be indoors. She normally went to her siblings homes for the holidays on Christmas day, but was normally at home the night before. I wanted to stop by her apartment before the night was over so I could give her the gift I had picked out for her.

"It's open!" Ramona's seemingly weak voice called from the other side of the door. I wasted no time sliding the wall of glass open, somewhat worried about Ramona's welfare. She was normally bright and cheery around the holidays, but the voice that answered was a weak and soft one. I ducked my head in, quickly scanning her living room before my eyes locked onto her form on the couch. She was curled up in a ball, cocooned in blanket with tissues scattered across her body and coffee table. I stepped inside her small apartment, which was unusually warm, and closed the door behind me. Ramona craned her neck and gave a soft smile and motioned me over. It was obvious that the woman had a cold and was suffering violently from it. She would occasionally shake in her blankets and groan, which was followed by a sniff and another groan.

"Hey," I said after sitting on the edge of her couch. She turned and stretched out on her back before moving her blankets from her face.

"I feel like crap," she said bluntly. I snorted a quiet laugh and pressed the back of my fingers to her forehead, checking for a fever. Even through my gloves, I could feel heat radiating from her head. The fever was confirmed by her constant shivering; despite the high temperature in her apartment.

"You look like you do," I shifted my paw to her cheek, which was even hotter than her forehead, "Have you thought about medicine?" she sighed and nodded.

"I thought about it…then said 'screw it' when I realized the bottle was way over there." She used her nose to point to the far edge of the coffee table only a few feet away. I shook my head with a chuckle and patted her cheek before standing.

"Yes, Ramona," I said sarcastically, "Because that is an unreasonable distance." She rolled her eyes and swatted the covers down more.

"I don't have enough energy to move my tail Cooper, let alone my legs and/or arms to get a pill bottle." I took the bottle from the table, removed the cap, and dumped two pills of the aspirin into my paw before handing them over to the sickly raccoon along with the half full glass of water that was next to the bottle.

"I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, Mademoiselle." I took the glass from her paws and placed it softly on the glass top of the table before strolling into the kitchen.

"Not to be rude," I heard Ramona's sickly voice as I made my way to the small cabinets, "but shouldn't you be at home with Bentley and Murray instead of in my kitchen?" I gave her a sideways glace as I took a kettle from the cabinets and placed it in the sink.

"I was," I said as I started filling the kettle with water from the faucet, "but I figured I'd make a quick stop and drop off your Christmas present. And I just couldn't leave a pretty lady like yourself sniffling and sneezing at home on Christmas Eve without a cup of hot chocolate and a few aspirin." I turned off the faucet and placed the full kettle on the stove, turning on the heat to let the water warm up.

"That was sweet," she said with a smile, "I've got yours under my tree." She motioned to her highly decorated tree with her nose. The tree was in the corner of the room near her balcony door with white lights covering the false needles of the tree. Ornaments of carious types hung from the branches and a golden start was perched on the tip of the tree. From another cabinet I took down a coffee mug and a packet of hot chocolate. I placed the mug on the counter and dumped the contents of the pouch into the mug. I glanced to Ramona, who was still curled up in the blankets, and sighed. She shut her eyes tightly and shivered violently again.

"How do you get sick on Christmas Eve Ramona?" she giggled quietly and pulled herself up to where she was leaning heavily on the armrest.

"Well," she said as she brushed her messy hair from her face, "when you grow up in the horrid heat of Australia, snow is a really cool thing to see," she wiped her nose on her sleeve with a sniff, "So let's just leave it at, I had a really long snow day yesterday." I barked a laugh as I shut the stove off and poured the steaming water into the mug with the hot chocolate mix inside. I stirred the mix with the water until it was well mixed before bringing it to the sneezing raccoon on the couch. She took the mug in her paw and brought it up to her nose, letting the steam hit her nose.

"Thank you." She said with a congested voice. I sat on the edge of the couch and brushed a few strands of her hair away from her face.

"Well," I said after she sipped at the hot chocolate in her paws, "I'm going to head back to my hideout and I'll leave you to relax." She put her mug down and cocked her head.

"You're leaving? You've only been here a few minutes." I smiled, but also raised an eyebrow in the process.

"So you're asking me to stay?" she shrugged and stuttered a little.

"W-well I was just s-stating that you hadn't been here that long. You can stay if you want…it's up to you." She quickly put the mug to her lips and sipped, avoiding my gaze.

"If you want me to stay," I said with a wide smile, "all you have to do is ask." Ramona was never on to really show certain emotions, such as fear, weakness, and some aspects of romance.

"…Can you stay for a little while longer?" she ran her finger over the rim of the mug and bit her bottom lip.

"Now was it that hard to ask?" I chuckled and the raccoon as she continued to sip at her hot chocolate. We didn't really do much for the remainder of the evening; we sat and talked over simple things and of the gifts we had given our friends and family members. It had been about an hour before her cold was starting to make her drowsy. I took her mug from her paws to keep it from spilling over and placed it on the table. He eyes closed slowly and her head started to droop, her nose lightly touching her shoulder. Seeing this as my time to leave her to get some sleep, I took her Christmas present on the coffee table along with a calling card, allowing her to open it when she woke up in the morning. I softly placed a paw to her forehead, checking for a fever before leaning in close to her ear.

"Merry Christmas, Ramona." I whispered quietly into her ear before placing a soft kiss on her cheek. I stood from her couch and pulled the blankets over her body to keep her warm. I silently made my way to my exit and opened it quietly. I glanced back briefly to see that she was still sleeping soundly. I smiled quietly to myself before darting from her apartment and into the snowy night.


End file.
